Before & After: A Hoarder House Turned Bright Haven

This was a complete renovation, from top to bottom, inside and out, back to front. Although the outside alone goes from night to day, it’s the inside that’s pretty remarkable — not only for the scope of the work, but the beautiful outcome.

The biggest change was mostly cosmetic — the brown, mottled bricks were painted a light grey — such a dramatic change — that looks great with the white trim and the new landscaping. The new French doors really open things up.

This back patio certainly wasn’t in terrible shape, but still, it was nothing special, and not a spot where you would necessarily want to hang out.

The small stone patio was replaced with this generously proportioned wooden one with a charming outdoor bar. Do you think it’s possible to sit out there on rainy days, protected by the open window? That would be amazing.

Now, let’s head inside:

Here’s the living room, in pretty good shape. Those slatted doors were an interesting trend in their day, and the chandelier is far too small for the space, but otherwise, the floors, walls, and molding are all nice. That coffee table appears to be amazing.

But here’s the same room now, showing that the former living room has been reimagined as a combination open floor plan living room/dining room. (The other half of the living room can be seen in the kitchen photo above.) The doors and windows appear to have once again been expanded, while the doorway to the rest of the house has been totally removed.

The kitchen as it was before is tough to see, but it does give you the full picture of what this renovation entailed as Three Birds Renovations notes that the home had been previously occupied by a hoarder. To help you get your bearings, you can see the window on the left and the pantry towards the back of the room. Three Birds Renovations did a major recovery effort here with a lot of structural changes. After clearing the room, they wound up removing all of the walls, but were able to save the original floorboards.

Wow! What a breath of fresh air — and thank goodness those gorgeous floors were saved. The window was replaced with a much larger one, giving an enticing view of the renovated patio (more on that in a sec), and the pantry appears to have been repurposed as the perfect nook for the refrigerator.

The pendant lights provide dreamy illumination for the breakfast bar, while floating almost invisibly, allowing the eye to drift gently from room to room. I know that readers sometimes get frustrated with what they perceive as Too Much White in renovations, but in this case, it is quite understandable why the designers would want the freshest, cleanest, sparest look possible. The nearly all-white palette also means that the black elements — stove, floor lamp, armchairs — really pop.

I highly recommend that you check out the Three Birds Renovations post with all of the before & after photos. There were too many to include here, but they’re astounding and really make it clear how much vision the team brought to this project.

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Sponsors for Needed Phoebe’s Pageant Fund

Phoebe was invited and attended an open call for National American Miss on May 18th. After being interview by the committee she was chosen as one of New Jersey's state finalist. Our next step for Phoebe to proceed is attaining sponsors. As we all know times are tough however, she would appreciate any amount you would be able to contribute. Phoebe is very excited to represent her state in August. The pageant goals are for her to gain poise and self-confidence, practice speaking in front of a live audience, and become actively involved in her community. All donations are tax deductible for businesses as an advertising expense. All sponsors will be listed in the state year book. Thank you for your time whether you chose to sponsor or not. The Armstead Family Help spread the word!